Psalm 37:3-4 What Kind of Ride Do You Want in Life?

I love roller coasters. The thrill of slowly going up the first incline builds anticipation of what’s to come. Though no one can see over the hill, everyone knows what to expect. YES—the free fall of the roller coaster as it quickly descends into turns, twists and spirals and anything else that’s ahead. My favorite was the American Eagle at Marriott’s Great America. I say was because, even though I enjoyed immensely, that particular roller coaster has become very shaky and bumpy. So much so that the bumps and shakiness gives me a headache and makes me sick. So why should I go on that ride anymore? I don’t because I would rather enjoy the other rides that are available.

Life can be that way. Fretting, worrying and anxiousness takes the enjoyment out of the ride of life. Scripture gives us an answer to fretting throughout this whole Psalm, which is 40 verses long. In Psalm 37:3 the first response to God is starting point—TRUST. This is in what’s called the imperative. An imperative is a command—it’s not an option. It’s like when there’s danger ahead that a person doesn’t see and another person yells out STOP! If the person doesn’t stop, then he will get hurt or even killed. There are other imperatives as well, such as GO, or DO THIS, or DON’T DO THAT. That’s an imperative.
In this Psalm the major problem is fretting and worrying. In other words, don’t let fretting dominate your life. It produces insecurity. TRUST in God—TRUST is an imperative. This is a position of SECURITY. We can’t handle things on our own, nor should we, nor does God want us to do that. We don’t know the future. But God does! TRUST Him. Feel secure in Him. Will it always be a smooth ride in life? Absolutely not. As Bette Davis said in All About Eve “this is going to be a bumpy ride.” Yet, we TRUST God even during the bumpy times in life.

The next thing God wants Christians to do is to DELIGHT in Him. Again, ‘delight’ is an imperative. ‘Delighting’ is a natural outgrowth that comes from trusting God and commending—handing over everything—to Him. Let God handle our problems. The Hebrew word has the meaning ‘enjoy’ God. In another place it means ‘to soften’. I like this understanding of the word because there is so much in life that can harden us, which in turn can harden our relationship with God. Fretting, unnecessary worrying and anger/hatred toward others creates hardening and burning inside. Handing everything over to God means that we let go of it so that we can enjoy our relationship with Him. He softens us. He calms our fears. This frees us up to delight in the Lord. We can grow in our relationship with God and begin once again to look at life differently—more delightfully and see the world with a smile, calmness and peace. This is the way God wants His people to live.

The second part of verse 4 says that God will give you the desires of your heart. This doesn’t mean that people are to delight in God so that they can get stuff, or try to manipulate God. That’s just simply not going to happen. However, the ‘desires of your heart’ means that we are to go to God in prayer. Yes, we can, and should, make requests to God regularly and daily. We delight in God and are confident that He hears our prayers. Jesus even instructed His disciples to do this as well: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock and it will be opened to you (read the rest of it in Matthew 7:7-11).

The desire of every Christian’s heart—including the Redeker Christians—is to ask for His guidance in all we do. This helps take away the worrying, fretting, and anxiousness that can harden a person and replace the hardening with a softer spirit. In this way, God smooths out the rough spots and potholes in life that can make it ‘a bumpy ride’.

What are some ways that you can delight in the Lord? Are there some areas in your life today that need some softening so that you can delight more in Jesus? What are some of the desires of your heart? God to Jesus in prayer and ask. He helps make life a smooth and delightful ride.

Have a great day! I love you guys!
Dad